He wanted them to chill forever

From QNS:

A Rego Park man who runs his own maintenance company faces criminal charges for allegedly pouring mercury into a Queens family’s air conditioning unit after getting one too many complaints about the malfunctioning system.

Yuriy Kruk, 48, of Alderton Street owns and operates the A+ HVAC and Kitchen Corporation. According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, a Jamaica Estates family contacted Kruk during the summer of 2015 to perform various repairs to their home.

Prosecutors said the victim repeatedly complained to Kruk that the second-floor air conditioning unit wasn’t working properly. Kruk replied that the system needed to be replaced, and in July of 2015, a new unit was installed.

Soon after the unit’s installation, law enforcement sources said, one of the victim’s noticed drops of a silvery liquid on the floor near the air conditioning units, and the same liquid dripping out of the vents in which Kruk had worked.

Members of the Fire Department’s Haz-Mat Unit responded to the home after receiving a 911 call and determined that the substance was mercury — the highly-toxic liquid metal. The family of three, which includes a husband, wife and their son, complained of having symptoms of mercury poisoning — including joint pain, headaches and lethargy.

All three family members were tested and found to have elevated levels of mercury in their bloodstream, Brown said.

Hydrant horror in Whitestone

Several months ago a tractor trailer made an illegal right turn eastbound onto 5th avenue. The Semi hit a Fire Hydrant on the corner and proceeded to attempt to back out, running over the Hydrant again. There was a Diesel Fuel spill creating a Haz Mat situation on the block. The Hydrant has since been removed and replaced several times, due to contaminated soil underneath that needed to be removed. On June 8th 2011, both DEP and DEC were on sight once again digging out contaminated soil, and repairing hydrant due to the Diesel fuel contaminant still underground. When asked by several of the residents on 5th avenue what was going on, a high ranking DEP official explained that they would probably have to come back and dig up the street. This due to the fact that over 100 gallons of Diesel spilled onto the ground and is seeping further.

June 9th, we noticed water pooling around the hydrant, we took several pictures and sent them to CB7 as well as our Councilman's office. Our Councilman's office responded that DEP would investigate. June 10th 2011, the hydrant had a seal on it that read "NON COMPLETED WATER VALVE WORK ORDER". This on top of the fact that the first time they repaired the Hydrant it was left inoperable for several weeks until one of our members questioned its operational ability. Now yet again we have a Fire Hydrant that was rendered inoperable months ago and continues to be inoperable in a time when our immediate community is being hit with FIRE HOUSES CLOSING, ENGINE 306 IN BAYSIDE (which would be one of the houses responding to our area in the event of an emergency).

Yet again an already dangerous situation on 5th avenue in Whitestone Queens is being compounded because No one is willing to do the right thing for the block and convert it to a One Way West Bound. If this would have been done, the accident that caused this problem would never have happened.

That Hydrant could have been a person or worse a child. The driver that night did not know what he ran over, only that he ran something or someone over and attempted to back up running the something or someone over yet again! (Murder?) Now we are left with contaminated soil that is traveling to the point where they may need to excavate the road. To add insult to injury , if there is a fire, GOD FORBID! The residents of 5th avenue will have to make due without a Hydrant.

Thank you to all that have allowed this Extremely Dangerous situation to continue and get progressively worse. We now have a toxic spill underground that is spreading . As well as an inoperable FIRE HYDRANT! Is the Diesel seeping into the foundations of the surrounding homes as well? Is the Fire Hydrant going to be repaired quickly?

HOW MUCH MORE MUST THE RESIDENTS OF 5TH AVENUE ENDURE????

Malba Gardens Civic Association

Radioactive rocks in Astoria

From Eyewitness News:

ASTORIA, Queens (WABC) -- A hazardous material teams investigated a possible radiation scare at a house in Queens.

A box with a radiation symbol was found inside an apartment on 45th Street in Astoria Tuesday.

Newscopter 7 flew over the building while Hazmat and the bomb squad sorted through boxes.

The owner died, and donated everything to charity.

While his belongings were being packed up, a suspicious box was discovered.

It tested positive for trace amounts of radiation.

It turns out the box was full of rocks that emit low levels of radiation.

Note how the video from WPIX and the ABC story differ quite a bit. Which one is the truth?